VeganWheekers asked: “Could there be a connection between the 107 whales that died on New Zealand beach yesterday and today's earthquake?” while TV New Zealand added: "has anyone noticed the correlation between beached whales and earthquakes?"

Following the discovery of 30 stranded pilot whales on the island earlier this month, RadioLive breakfast show host Marcus Lush tweeted that an earthquake “greater than five” would hit in the next week.

In the past, there have been examples of whales beaching themselves before major earthquakes, most notably before the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

Around 170 whales died in Australia and New Zealand in the months before the underwater earthquake in the Indian Ocean.

The resulting tsunami killed over 230,000 people in 14 different countries.

Dr Arunachalam Kumar, a professor from India, believes there is a connection between the beaching of marine mammals and earthquakes.

Three weeks before the tsunami, he was alerted to the whales’ deaths, and wrote: “It is my observation, confirmed over the years, that mass suicides of whales and dolphins that occur sporadically all over the world, are in some way related to change and disturbances in the electromagnetic field co-ordinates and possible realignments of geotectonic plates thereof.

“I would not be surprised if within a few days a massive quake hits some part of the globe.”

Scientists are currently speculating that the cause of death of New Zealand's pilot whales is due to sound reverberations in shallow water.